Your experience differs from many others', although I don't necessarily know why. I do know that many who have spent tens of thousands of dollars on custom servers and high-end DACs would not agree that caching and buffering files before playing doesn't matter, nor that sound from streaming an Internet source quite matches playing local files.
As an audiophile I don't want to listening to a source that is known to have higher noise, artificial highs do to group delay and aliasing, and lossy files that don't match what the display says is playing. This stuff has been known for years but was difficult to prove because MQA does all it can to control testing. They also do all they can to control the narrative through astroturfing while blocking any real discussion. Good for this guy to be able to sneak in testing and for publishing it. The industry rags should be ashamed and embarrassed for what they have done to promote this without testing.
No Tidal/MQA for me ever. Neither is trustworthy, each having delivered false advertising/claims, and I do not do business with such entities.
IMO: The original goal was to silently implant MQA so thoroughly that we would be forced to use it. Fortunately that doesn't seem to be happening because they've been caught 'in flagrante delicto'. Instead of being accepted by the masses, MQA has been exposed by music lovers everywhere as a fraud. It was designed to create a new revenue stream from all the stuff that's already out there. I refuse to buy into MQA and fortunately I still have that choice. PS: It is alarming how many reviewers and manufacturers extolled its virtues. The false prophets of MQA.
I’m supporting manufacturers who aren’t including MQA in their digital to analog converters. Deblurring? LOL.
I still remember watching a Michael Fremer video from 2017 or so, where he shows off his system. And I remember him saying that while he loved a certain dac, now that he heard mqa, he couldn't buy it cause it didn't support mqa
This is the Emperor’s New Clothes moment for MQA. A sober, cogent dismantling of the worst digital snake oil I’ve ever seen peddled in this hobby. Brian Lucey was sounding the alarm in 2017, which to me has been the most convincing argument against MQA, until this video was posted.
Not true at all. The MQA discussions there are pretty much civil, and the majority participating are not MQA fans.
Actually initial testing shows it’s even worse, as it can be MQA CD. They replaced allot of their redbook content already. MQA less isn’t mentioned in their release, just 1411kbps flac.
HiFi Plus – $23.99 AUD a month with lossless High Fidelity sound quality (1411 Kbps), MasterQuality audio (up to 9216 Kbps), and immersive audio – 360 Reality Audio, Dolby Atmos Music
